Palin to speak at major GOP event

Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin will not be speaking at this year's Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington, but she has accepted an invitation to speak at a higher profile event that could have implications for the 2012 presidential race.

Palin will speak at the Southern Republican Leadership Conference in New Orleans, a major gathering of Republican officials, donors and activists from 14 southern states, organizers announced Thursday.

"I'm looking forward to addressing conservative activists from across the south at the 2010 Southern Republican Leadership Conference," Palin said in a statement. "This is a great opportunity to listen and speak to those who are helping to set the direction of our party."

A Palin confidante said the governor is not being paid to speak at the event.

Political watchers will be paying close attention, and not just because several potential presidential candidates are expected to attend. The SRLC - "the most prominent Republican event outside of a Republican National Convention," the organization boasts - also conducts a presidential straw poll.

The straw poll has had a mixed record of predicting future electoral success. George W. Bush, who was then governor of Texas, won the poll in 1998, two years before his presidential bid. But former Tennessee Sen. Bill Frist, who never mounted a presidential bid, took first place at the 2006 SRLC.

"We're excited to have Governor Palin join us in New Orleans. She represents the future of the Republican Party and will be a huge draw for conservative activists from across the country," SRLC Director Charlie Davis said in an accompanying statement. (Source CNN)

Trials of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and other terrorists will cost us more than $200 million a year

Providing security for the trials of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and other terrorism suspects connected with the Sept. 11 attacks will cost more than $200 million a year, according to the Bloomberg administration, making it one of the most expensive security operations ever taken on by the city.

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg outlined the city’s projected security expenses in a two-page letter sent on Tuesday to Peter R. Orszag, the director of the federal Office of Management and Budget. The letter, which seeks federal reimbursement for all security costs, was released on Wednesday.

In the letter, the mayor said the cost would be about $216 million for the first year and $206 million per year in subsequent years. Much of the expense — about $200 million each year — would be for personnel. The rest would cover equipment-related expenses of $12.5 million in the first year and $2.5 million in each subsequent year.

Although the mayor stressed that the city needed the federal government to shoulder the financial burden, he did not argue that the trials should not be held in New York.

When asked what the city would do if the government declined to cover the costs, Paul J. Browne, the Police Department’s chief spokesman, said, “We do not have the resources available to provide the protection needed absent federal funding.” (continues here)

Gallup: Conservatives Finish 2009 as No. 1 Ideological Group

The increased conservatism that Gallup first identified among Americans last June persisted throughout the year, so that the final year-end political ideology figures confirm Gallup's initial reporting: conservatives (40%) outnumbered both moderates (36%) and liberals (21%) across the nation in 2009.

More broadly, the percentage of Americans calling themselves either conservative or liberal has increased over the last decade, while the percentage of moderates has declined.

Since 1992, there have been only two other years -- 2003 and 2004 -- in which the average percentage of conservatives nationwide outnumbered moderates, and in both cases, it was by two percentage points (in contrast to the current four points).

The rather abrupt three-point increase between 2008 and 2009 in the percentage of Americans calling themselves conservative is largely owing to an increase -- from 30% to 35% -- in the percentage of political independents adopting the label. Over the same period, there was only a slight increase in professed conservatism among Republicans (from 70% to 71%) and no change among Democrats (at 21%).

The 2009 findings come from an aggregate of 21 separate Gallup and USA Today/Gallup surveys, including nearly 22,000 interviews. The 1992 to 2008 trends also represent thousands of interviews compiled for each year. Thus, the margins of sampling error around the individual estimates are less than one percentage point. (continues here)

Palin will headline first-ever Tea Party Convention

Almost 1-1/2 years since she shook up American politics with her acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention, former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin is set to headline another landmark political event: the first-ever Tea Party Convention next month in Nashville, Tenn.

On its face, the gig would seem a step down for Ms. Palin, one of conservative America’s most popular and polarizing figures (not to mention major thorn in the side of the Obama White House).

But with an NBC/Wall Street Journal poll ranking a generic “Tea Party” as more popular than either Democrats or Republicans, and Palin herself rivaling the charming Mr. Obama in poll popularity, many experts see the Tea Party event as a potential milestone for a mounting, even transformational, force in US politics.

“[W]ith two wars, a continuing terror threat, huge federal deficits, and a major healthcare overhaul in the works, there is no shortage of disaffection out there … and that could prove to be political dynamite,” writes the Washington Post’s Howard Kurtz. Against that backdrop, writes Mr. Kurtz, “The tea types can either blossom into a Perotista-style third-party movement or be subsumed to some degree by the GOP.” (continues here)

C-Span live coverage: another broken promise. Watch Video

Taking a break...

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